On Saturday, March 1st, from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, the Roslyn Branch of AYLUS volunteered at a CP Nassau Group Home (Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County). CP Nassau is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to providing quality services for children and adults with cerebral palsy. One of their programs is to provide residential life services to adults in a healthy, safe and secure home-like living environment. The group home that we volunteered at today has 4 residents present.
Today, 5 members of Roslyn Branch came up with fun activities for the residents. We started with baking. The residents were helped with making a Funfetti Cake. While we were waiting for the cake to finish baking, we started arts and crafts. We used tracers to draw fish, leaves, and trees. We encouraged the residents to participate, helping them make cards for people that are important to them. After the cake cooled down, everyone spreaded their own amount of frosting and sprinkles onto their slice. Everyone loved them. The house was filled with cheers and excitement. After this, we played basketball, connect four, and did some more arts and crafts. One of the residents made a card for us, saying how they would like us to come back soon.
These activities were fun, challenging for the residents, and helped us get to know them better. For example, we learned that some residents were interested in things others weren’t, and didn’t want to engage as much as others. However, some other residents stayed engaged and active. One of the challenges was not being able to get the residents to do the same activities, however, we resolved this by making it interactive for all of them so theyre all interested.
Members who participated include: Leo Zheng (3 hours), Maxim Li (3 hours), Michael Zhang (3 hours), Maggie Xiao (Great Neck) (3 hours), Haoyang Sun (Great Neck) (3 hours), Letao Tao (3 hours)
Reporter: Leo Zheng
